


Ultra Despair Boys

by ArseneCG



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-27
Updated: 2018-11-13
Packaged: 2019-05-14 05:42:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14763702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArseneCG/pseuds/ArseneCG
Summary: Shuichi Saihara, The Ultimate Detective, has gone missing while investigating a case involving a new serial killer that has been causing chaos in the area. While trying to get in contact with his best friend, Rantaro Amami finds that Shuichi is nowhere to be found, leaving no clues and trails to follow. At the same time, another client of Shuichi's enters his office, a young boy around the same age as Rantaro, who seems to be more mischievous than he is helpful. It's worth noting that they don't get along so well.It is now up to these two to find the Ultimate Detective and stop a profound serial killer. It's not looking too good. Shuichi may be screwed. No wait, he's definitely screwed.





	1. Life or Death

**Author's Note:**

> So this a side project that I'm working on for fun while I work on my main story. This is going to be more funny and lighthearted, and will probably get serious at times. I'm not sure yet, and I'm not sure how frequently I'll update this story. It'll probably have shorter chapters, and won't be too long of a series. 
> 
> Anyway, the characters in this may at some points have "amplified" versions of their personalities in the game. It's all for fun. Tell me if you like it.

I felt a pounding sensation in my head as I started to open my eyes. My vision was blurry at first, and my entire body felt heavy and burdened. The back of my head ached with an annoying pain. Someone must have hit me in the back of the head to knock me out while I was in the office with Kokichi. Hopefully my hair still looked good, though. I actually worked really hard on it this morning to get it to sit exactly how I wanted it to. I just don't roll out of bed looking this put together. I digress.

I did notice something really troubling when I tried to press my hands against my head to alleviate the pain. Well, it more that I noticed something that I couldn't do. I couldn't move my hands, which is really bizarre. I can usually use my hands whenever I want. I shook my head in place, shaking the dizziness from my sight. My eyes adjusted in the darkened room, with a single light above me illuminated the center of the space we were in. Before I could see my hands, I could see Kokichi, smiling and just as tied up in front of me. 

"Kokichi?" I asked out loud as I shifted around in my seat. "You're here too?"

"Heeeeeeeeey, Rantaro," Koichi greeted me with that fake smile. "It's great to see that you're awake. I thought you may have died, and whoever put us here put your dead body in front of me to taunt me, or something." 

Well, at least he pretended to care about me. That's all I could really ask for. He wouldn't leave me alone since he came to Shuichi's Detective Office, looking for the Ultimate Detective to solve a case for him. I had to break the news to him that Shuichi had disappeared the week before, leaving his best friend (that's me, Rantaro Amami) to look for him. I had no luck, of course. After all, I wasn't the friend that was a detective. If one us was going to disappear out of nowhere and the other had to undertake the task to save him, he really picked the worst combination. Anyway, Kokichi Oma didn't just leave when I told him Shuichi was nowhere in sight. He stuck around, following me around town as I tried to gain clues. He told me he would help me, and was probably the only person in this strange town that would even extend the offer. I refused, but he insisted. Here we are now. 

"Ahhhhhhhh, Rantaro," Kokichi called out to me, breaking my concentration. "What are we going to do?" 

Now that he mentioned it, maybe it was a good time to look around and take in my surroundings. I looked down to examine my own body first. My legs were strapped down to the legs of the chair I was sitting in, and my arms were just as tied up to the arms of chair. There was no way I was going anywhere. I brought my gaze up to see how Kokichi was doing. He too was tied up in the same manner as me, but there was one glaring difference: his right arm was free. 

"Did you untie yourself?" I questioned. "Can you untie me?"

"Nope."

"Nope? What do you mean nope?"

"I didn't untie my arm. I woke up like this."

"That's weird."

"You're telling me."

I brought my attention to the small table in between myself and Kokichi, which appeared to be the only other object in the room. On top of the table was a small revolver, the barrel of which was pointed in my direction. That's not good.

"Oh, you just saw the gun?" Kokichi giggled as he followed my gaze to the table. "Don't worry, I brought it with me."

"You're lying."

"Damn, you know me too well now. It's not fun to lie to you anymore."

A sharp echo of static broke up our argument, signaling that someone was using the old intercom system of the building we woke up in. It appeared that we weren't alone here. Whether that was good or bad, I didn't know yet. 

"Welcome, Rantaro Amami, Kokichi Oma." The voice that came through the intercom was deep and distorted. The person on the other end was clearly using some sort of program to hid their true voice. Whoever they were, though, they knew us. They had the advantage here.

"You know us?" I asked as I assumed that they were watching us. "What do you want from us?"

"I'm trying to play a game here," the disembodied voice answered. "I want to test how much you two trust each other."

"Oh, we don't trust each other at all," Kokichi interrupted. "He thinks everything I say is a lie."

"Well that's only because everything you say is absolutely a lie," I responded. 

"He's right," Kokichi chuckled at my comment. "I do lie a lot, don't I?"

"That would be an understatement."

"Oh my god," the voice groaned, clearly annoyed by our banter. "Just shut up for like two minutes while I try to explain what's going on. Geez, creepy voices don't get any respect anymore."

"Sorry," we both said at the same time, and remained silent for the time being.

"Thank you," the voice gave us some sassy gratitude. "Anyway, we're going to play a game. Clearly you both noticed the gun on the table in front of you. It is loaded with a single bullet. As you can see, both of you are tied up, except I have left Kokichi the ability to use his right arm. Now, underneath your chairs are two batteries hooked up to your chests, which, when turned on, will bring electrical shocks up through the chair and straight into your bodies, killing you instantly."

That's not good. 

"You have ten minutes to figure out which one of you will die. Kokichi can use the gun and kill either himself, or you, Mr. Amami. When one of you dies, the batteries on the chairs will shut off, immediately sparing the life of the other person. The surviving party will than be set free, to live out the remainder of their life. On the other hand, if no one dies by the end of the ten minutes, then the batteries underneath both chairs will turn on, killing you both." 

Kokichi grabbed the gun on the table, letting the weight of it sink into his hand. He cocked his head to the side as he held an expression of amazement and confusion on his face. It was up to him to decide which one of us would live to see another day. That did not sit well with me. 

"Your time starts now."

My stomach churned as our timer began, counting down to our doom. I tried to keep my mind clear, and keep myself calm and collected. There had to be a way for both of us to live and make it to the end of this wicked game of life or death. To begin with, I found the ten minute timer to be strangely suspicious on its own. Why give us ten minutes to decide which one of us would live or die? If they wanted us to make a knee-jerk decision, the timer would be set to mere seconds, at most. No, this was puzzle to be solved. The room had to be set up so a single bullet would set off a chain reaction, freeing us in the process. If we talked through this, we could do it together. 

"Okay, Kokichi..." I began, trying to analyze our surroundings to formulate some sort of plan to get us both out of this. "If you try to shot the light above us, we can..."

Before I could even finish my sentence, Kokichi aimed the gun right to my face and pulled the trigger... The sound of the empty click filled the room, and we both fell silent for a moment. 

"Did... Did you just try to shoot me?"

"Ahhh, nooooo."

The room was silent once again. Then I heard another click from the gun in front of me.

"You just tried to shoot me again."

"Damn," Kokichi cursed as he aimed the barrel of the gun to his eye, examining what was inside. "Is this jammed or something?"

"I can't believe you right now," I sighed as I leaned my head against the back of my chair. "Two seconds didn't even pass before you just gave up and tried to shoot me."

"Hey!" Kokichi shouted as he slammed the empty gun back on the table. "Why should both of us die when one of us could live and keep the cherished memory of their recently deceased friend alive?"

"How come you were the one that was going to live, then?"

"Because I had the gun," Kokichi shook his head towards me in a matter of fact way. "Duhhhhhh."

"Whatever," I dismissed him completely as I looked around the room. "Ah, creepy voice? He tried to kill me. Did we pass or fail? What's gonna happen now?"

To my surprise the deep synthetic voice didn't respond back. The silence that filled the room was both deafening and baffling. Kokichi and I looked at each other with perplexed expression, unsure of what was going to happen now. Wasn't the voice spectating us, watching our every move? They said they wanted us to play a game, which pretty much fell apart immediately after they gave Kokichi the go ahead to possibly shoot someone... And the someone being me. 

Then we heard a rhythmic noise come from behind the door of the room. At first I couldn't make out what the noise was exactly, but it sounded so familiar, like I had heard it so many times before. I took me a second, but then the realization hit me: those were footsteps. And they were getting closer to the door, and were picking up in pace. Kokichi and I both kept looking to the side, watching the door closely. There was just enough light in the room for us to make out the outline of the door. 

Finally, the noise stopped, and I could see a shadow standing behind the smudged glass of the door, blocking me from seeing any specific characteristics of the person. From their outline, however, I could tell that they had long hair, and seemed to be rather small for someone that was using a mean, menacing voice. The door handle shook for second and turned slightly, and the door slowly opened. 

"I can't believe you two!" A voice that definitely came from a woman came from the door. "Did you two seriously just try to kill each other?" 

"No," Kokichi responded. "I tried to kill just him."

The shadows of the room kept me from seeing the woman that had entered the room. She walked closer to us, until she was finally at the center of the room. She had blonde hair, with a musical note clip in her bangs. She wore a light pink vest, with a white backpack strapped to her. She appeared to be around our age. She was the exact opposite of what I was expecting a deep disembodied voice to look like, to say the least. 

"You two have a lot to learn," she sighed as she knelt down next to my chair to untie the ropes around my arms. "You'll never find Shuichi if all you two do is bicker."

"Wait a second," I said as I rubbed my sore wrist with my free hands. For such a small person, she could tie one hell of a knot. "Did you just say Shuichi? You know him?" 

"Yeah, I know him," Kaede sighed as she made her way to Kokichi's chair. "We were... friends, about a year or so ago."

That was a weird way to say that. Shuichi and I are best friends, so I thought that he told me everything. He never told me about any other friends of his. He barely had any free time to hang out with me due to his detective work, so this discovery was unexpected, to say the least. 

"Ahhhhh, disembodied voice that turned out to be a pretty girl," Kokichi chimed in once he regained feeling in his tied limbs. "Why did you kidnap us and forced me to try to kill Rantaro?" 

"Forced?" I retorted with an apparent hint of annoyance in my voice. "That's a weird way of saying, 'I gave up on the challenge immediately and tried to save my own life.'"

"See what I have to deal with?" Kokichi pointed to me, giving me a fake frown in the process. "I don't get any respect. He doesn't even take me out anymore! I get all dressed up, and then he just sits in the office all day crying about his lost best friend."

"What are you even talking about?"

"Will you two stop arguing for like five minutes?" The woman lifted Kokichi's seat from behind him and tilted it forward, throwing him onto the ground. "You failed the test almost immediately."

"Not my fault," I interrjected. 

"It doesn't matter. You're lucky that this wasn't a real test for survival, or you both would probably end up dead. There's no way you're going to save Shuichi like this if you don't improve."

"Well exuuuuuuuuse me for wanting to live," Kokichi said as he crossed his arms defensively. "Who even are you? Acting all important before we even know your name."

The girl bore a wide smile on her face once she heard Kokichi's question. She quickly turned the chair over, bringing the seat toward her direction. She lifted one of her legs to the chair and rested it on the seat, putting herself in a very triumphant pose. With one hand on her waist and the other pointed to his chest, she gave me a confident looking gaze. 

"My name is Kaede Akamatsu, and together we're going to save Shuichi Saihara from the Blueberry Killer!"

"The Blueberry whatnow?"

It seemed like Kokichi was confused about the most important part of what she was saying. Had he really not heard of the latest serial killer terrorizing cities from all over the country? It was either a blatant lie, which isn't out of the question, or he lived under a rock for the past three months. Knowing him, both were likely. 

"The Blueberry Killer," I answered, keeping my sight set to the floor. "He's been killing people all around the area for the past three month or so. He's been kidnapping people of all kinds, regardless of age, gender, or nationality, which would explain why they all disappear. When their bodies are finally found, they were all missing their eyes. Other than how their bodies were discovered, all of his victims had one other thing in common: they all had blue eyes. You know, before the killer removed them and all that. Shuichi was looking into the case right before he disappeared." 

"But something is strange about his disappearance," Kaede asked me, clearly setting up some sort of test for my deductive reasoning, "isn't there, Ranatro?" 

"Yeah," I answered quickly. "Shuichi doesn't have blue eyes." 

"Then maybe it wasn't the Blueberry Pie Killer?" Kokichi added, finally standing up to brush off the dirt that collected on his white pants. 

"Maybe it wasn't," Kaede suggested, but I knew where she was trying to sway this conversation. "The Blueberry Killer leaves behind a single blueberry at the scene of the victim's disappearance."

"I found one in Shuichi's office," I recalled, looking away from the other two. "Right on his desk."

"Spooky."

Thanks, Kokichi. You always know what to say. 

"So that means that the Blueberry Killer definitely had something to do with Shuichi's disappearance," Kaede explained as she finally sat down on the chair that she stole from Kokichi. "Whether it's a copycat or not, we can't be sure, but we should go in expecting it to be the real deal."

"So what now?" Kokichi asked as he placed a finger on his chin. "We don't any cluse or anything to go off of."

"Here," Kaede tossed an old flip phone in my direction, "take this."

"A phone?" I questioned, examining the bulky piece of plastic in my hands. "What's this for?"

"This is how I'm going to contact you two from now on," she explained as she stood up from her chair and walked towards the exit. "Go back to the office and I'll contact you tomorrow night. We'll set up a location where we can meet and go over a game plan on how to capture the Blueberry Killer and save Shuichi."

"You make it sound so easy," I said, putting the phone in my back pocket. "You must have some information that we don't."

"You can say that."

And just like that she walked out of the room and down the hall, and Kokichi and I waited as the footsteps became gradually weaker. In an instant they were gone, and we were once again alone in the small dark room. We gave each other a perplexed look, unsure of what do to now. 

"Well that was weird."

Thanks, Kokichi.


	2. Here's The Plan

The next night, Kokichi and I found ourselves standing in front of a rather large metallic door leading to what seemed to be an abandoned building. Kaede had just called me using the burner phone, but was extremely vague in everything that she told me. All I could get out of her was the address to this location. 

"But why are we going there?" I remembered asking her. "Can't you come here to Shuichi's office?"

"That's a secret," she responded on the other end. "It would be soooo less cool if I told you why ahead of time."

Fair enough. Who was I to ruin this for her? After all, she did spend a lot of time making that fake death trap for myself and Kokichi yesterday, only for Kokichi to spoil it in a matter of seconds. He has a tendency to destroy everything he touches, pretty much deliberately, too. In a way, I felt bad. 

"Soooooooo," Kokichi started as he rested his hands behind his head. "What do we do now?"

"I guess we knock?"

"What if they don't hear it?" He then cupped his hands around his mouth. 'HEEEEEEY! KAEDE!! WE'RE HERE TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT THAT SUPER SECRET MEETING TO CATCH THE BLUEBERRY KILLER!!!"

In an instant the metallic door shot up, slamming Kokichi between the door and the brick wall in the process. Kaede gave me a clearly angered stare. How long was she waiting there? Was she standing there the entire time, waiting for us to knock?

"Can you not do that!?" She did one of those 'I'm yelling but I'm also whispering at the same time' kind of yells, but then her anger eased from her face once she realized it was just me. "Wait, where's the little guy? I just heard him."

"You pinned him between the wall when you opened the door."

"Good."

"Yeah." 

Once Kokichi squirmed his way out from behind the door, we followed Kaede through the door that she had been protecting, shutting it behind us in the process. To my surprise, the door lead to an immediate staircase going down. There were no extra rooms, or ever a top floor. I guess the rest of the building on the outside was just for show, to throw people off from it being a secret hide out and all. It was when we reached the bottom of the staircase that we finally saw the secret meeting room that Kaede had told us about.  
It was one large room, with three other people scattered throughout in their own stations. There was a blonde mechanic-looking girl to our left, and she was surrounded by various machines on her desk. There was a weird looking boy at the far end of the room, and his skin looked strange, like it was made out of metal. Last but not least, there was the biggest eighteen year old that you'll ever see to our right. He kind of looked like Tarzan. There was also one big desk at the center, decorated with various music notes and music. That must have been Kaede's station.

"Go around and introduce yourselves to me elite team," Kaede told us as she walked to her desk. "You're all going to be working together to stop the Blueberry Killer, so we have to trust each other." 

"Do we haaaaaaave to?" Kokichi groaned as he slumped his head down. "They all look so weird and unpleasant to talk to."

"Come on," I told him as I walked to the desk to left. "Let's make a good first impression."

First we were going to meet the blonde mechanic girl. When we walked to her station, we stood there for a second, just waiting for her to notice us. She didn't, though. She kept working on whatever new machine she was trying to create. Or maybe fix? Who knows? I looked over her shoulder to what exactly was keeping her attention. It looked like some sort of ray gun from the future, and it almost looked like she completed it. 

"Ahhhh, hey," I stammered, trying to get her attention and strike up a conversation. "How's it-"

"What do you want, virgins?" she rudely shouted towards us without looking up from her creation. 

She seems pleasant. 

"We're new here," I explained, trying my best keep some sort of semblance of conversation going. "Just wanted to say hi."

"Hey there!" Kokichi shouted with more optimism than I was expecting. "My name's Kokichi Oma! All my friends call me just Kokichi, so you can call me by my full name." 

"Ugh, will you fuckin' virgins leave me alo-" 

She paused as she finally pulled her googles down from her eyes and turned to look as me. Her eyes went from blind annoyance to... Something. It kind of looked like a predator finding a piece of meat for the first time. She scooted the chair that she was sitting in to the side and rolled it forward towards us. In the same motion, she whipped Kokichi to the side, throwing him off balance and onto the floor. She stopped the chair almost instantly right in front of me and rose up, so we were uncomfortably close to each other. 

"And who are you?"

"Ahhhh, the name's Rantaro Amami," I answered as I took a step back. "Who, ummm, are you?"

"Me?" she repeated as a devilish smile appeared on her face. "I'm the gorgeous girl genius, Miu Iruma! I'm the Ultimate Inventor! HAHAHAHA."

"I see you're also humble," I responded. "Anyway, it's nice to meet ya."

"The pleasure is mine." She put way too much emphasis on the word 'pleasure' just then. "We'll be spending a lot of time together."

"Yeah," I said, unsure of how to answer that. She was looking at me like a lion looking at a gazelle that it was about to pounce on. I didn't like it. It looked like she was going to eat me, and that made me rather uncomfortable. 

"I sure don't want to spend time with you, though," Kokichi laughed as he rose to he knees on the floor. She immediately kicked her leg backwards without looking, knocking him back down to the ground again. 

"Hey, Rantaro." She was making her voice somewhat deeper and breathy, my guess trying to sound as sultry as possible. "Would you mind helping me test out my new invention?"

"Ahhhhhh, sure, I guess," I shrugged, unsure of where this was going. "What do you need me to do?"

"Stay right there," she commanded as she sat down and rolled her chair backwards to reach her desk. She took the invention she was working on a minute ago, that odd looking ray gun, and pointed it towards me. I flinched out of instinct, and I wasn't ready for whatever she was going to shoot towards me. I was just hoping it wouldn't kill me, especially after escaping Kaede's death trap.

Miu pulled the trigger, the gun made a mechanical groan, and then... Nothing.

I felt different. Something was obviously... off, about me. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, though. I just felt... off. Nothing shot out of the ray gun, so I had no idea what she did to me. I did notice that she was hiding her free hand behind her back now. 

"What... What did you just do to me?"

"This baby is a teleportation gun," Miu triumphantly declared, and then she revealed what she was hiding behind her back. "But it only teleport underwear to my free hand."

She whistled nonchalantly as she twirled my rather expensive and silk underwear around her index finger. That's when I noticed just what was different about me. I quickly snatched my underwear from her hands and went to the bathroom that was off to the side. It only took me a minute to come back out, normal again, but I could feel the embarrassment on my face. 

"Are you good now?" Kokichi asked as he waited outside the bathroom door. 

"Let's not talk about."

We went to the next desk, to the strange looking boy sitting quietly at his desk. He was simply typing away on his computer, a smile place firmly on his face. Unlike Miu, he noticed us right away, and was quick to turn his chair and smile towards us.

"Hello there," he greeted as he bowed his head towards us. "My name is Unit K1-B0, but my creator, Miu Iruma, has decided to name me Keebo for short." 

"Yeah, we just meet her," Kokichi scowled as he looked over his shoulder towards her station. She was still looking at me, but doing very poorly in hiding it. I tried to ignore her.

"Wait," I interrupted. "Unit? Are you a robot?"

"Affirmative," Keebo answered with another smile. "My creator programmed me with an ever evolving AI that grows with experience. I am like a growing human being, much like yourselves. Because of this, I am the Ultimate Robot."

"Hey, that's pretty cool," I admitted as I examined Keebo's metal body. It was like talking to a normal human being, more or less. "The name's Rantaro, and this is Kokichi. Looking back, I don't think that I've ever met another robot before."

"Now that you mention it, doesn't that make you the ONLY robot?" Kokichi pondered out loud as he place a finger on his chin. "Can you really be the Ultimate Robot if you're the only robot?"

"Yeah, I didn't think of that," I agreed as I pondered this very complex topic as well. We then looked to Keebo for an answer. 

Keebo was completely frozen in place, immobile in his chair. It looked as if he was stuck in a large sheet of ice, unable to move any joints in his body. He held an expression on his face that I can only describe as overwhelming shock and surprised disgust? Shocking disgust, maybe? He was like that for a good thirty seconds, and Kokichi and I just stared at him during this time, unsure of what to do next.

"What just happened?" I asked. 

"Did we just break him?" 

Almost as if on cue, Keebo slowly turned his chair around towards his desk and learned towards the phone that was to the right of his computer. He picked it up, dialed a set of numbers with his metal fingers, and placed it against his ear. 

"Ummmm," Kokichi stuttered. "What are you doing?"

"Did was say something-"

"Hello, police?" Keebo announced into the phone. 

"Wait..." I started.

"Police?" Kokichi finished. 

"This is Unit K1-B0 and I would like to report a robophobic hate crime. Yes, there are two individuals here making remarks towards my robotic nature." He paused. "No, this is not a joke." Another pause. "I am well aware that this isn't my first time calling due to robophobia. According to my memory banks, this is the 53rd time I have called you in 48 hours due to experiencing robophobia from my peers." Pause. "What do you mean that robots don't exist!? That's robophobic! I'm calling the police!"

Kokichi and I decide to move on to the last station, leaving Keebo to his own devices. No pun intended. If you told Keebo about what I just wrote, I'm sure he would call the police on me. Anyway, we walked up to the long haired boy sitting at his desk. He was giant, and looked like he was almost twice my height and weight. For his size, though, he smiled happily at a glass container on his desk. It looked like some sort of beetle was inside of it. 

"Hey there," I said cheerfully as I gave him a slight wave. "What do you have there?"

"Hello!" The man stood up from his chair, towering over the two of us. "This is rare beetle. Gonta found it outside!"

"Gonta?" I questioned, analyzing his strange speaking pattern. "Is Gonta you're name?" 

"Yes!" He instinctively smiled as he introduced him. "My name is Gonta Gokuhara, and Gonta is Ultimate Entomologist! Gonta also gentleman!"

"Nice to meet you, Gonta," I smiled as he forcefully shook my hand with his free hand. His one hand completely engulfed mine in his grasp, but I could tell that he wasn't trying to shake too hard. "'My name's Rantaro Amami. Ultimate Entomologist, huh? You must really like bugs."

"Yes! Gonta love bugs! Bug are best thing in world! Do Rantaro and small boy like bugs?"

"Eh," Kokichi shrugged. "They're kind of gross."

An intense heat radiated from Gonta after he heard what Kokichi said about bugs. We both looked up to see a fierce looking expression on his face. His eyes grew dark and almost looked red due to the lighting of the room. He obviously liked bugs, but didn't take too kindly to others that didn't share that love.

"Ahhhhhh," I started thinking on my feet. "He means gross...ly awesome."

"Oh!" Gonta abruptly smiled again, letting go of all the anger that once consumed his very presence. "That good! Only bad people don't like bugs."

We got out of there fast, before Kokichi said something that I wouldn't be able to recover from. We went back to Kaede at the center of the room, and she directed us to sit at the large circular table at the leftmost corner of the room. We sat down, with Kokichi making sure to sit next to me. It only took a couple minutes for Kaede to assemble her ragtag team. They sat down one-by-one, and Miu sat in the seat the exact opposite of me. She gave me a wink when she sat down, and I hastily adverted my gaze to the side. 

"Okay, listen up, everyone," Kaede announced as the last person took their seat. "We're going to go over the plan to capture the Blueberry Killer."

"Oh, so you have a plan already?" I asked as I folded my arms in front of me. 

"You shouldn't expect anything less from the leader of the Task Force." Kaede confidently smiled as she pointed to herself. "We have to work fast, though. We don't have a lot of time left to save Shuichi."

"I guess I won't tell you my plan then," Kokichi groaned as he leaned back in his chair and rested his feet on the table. 

"You don't have a plan."

"You know me too well, Rantaro."

"Anyway," Kaede continued, taking control of the room again. "We're going to bait out the Blueberry Killer and catch him while he's in the act of kidnapping his next victim."

"Excuse me," Keebo interjected. "Did you say we are going to use bait?"

"Are we just going to wait until the next victim shows up?" Kokichi questioned, though he definitely didn't sound as concerned as he should have been by that thought. 

"No, not exactly," Kaede responded as she sat up from her seat at the round table. "I'm going to be the bait."

"Wait a minute," I said as I leaned forward, resting my arms on the table. "You don't have blue eyes, and that's the killer's M.O. Well, besides from Shuichi..."

"Yeah!" Miu shouted, and I'm sure she was just trying to agree with me just for the sake of it. 

"It's true, I don't have blue eyes... yet." Kaede closed her eyes for a moment. "I'm going to wear blue colored contacts to change my eye color. If I just change that, then I fit the physical description of the current known victims so far. Most of his victims have been young girls around our age, especially blondes."

I guess she caught on to that fact, too. Though I was no detective, I noticed before that not only did all of the previous victims have blue eyes, but most of them were women. Not all of them, but there were clearly far more female victims than male. Most of them with blonde hair, too. All that made me even more uneasy. Why did the Blueberry Killer kidnap Shuichi, then? He didn't fit any of the profiles of the previous victims. Something was off about this entire thing. 

"It may take a couple nights, but I'm sure he'll try to kidnap me once I get his attention. Miu is going to make cameras that Keebo will later install onto every street corner and alley near us. She will then monitor the live feed from here, and tell us when she sees something suspicious. I've already had her make these earpieces that will allow us to easily communicate with each other throughout the night. We will all stay in close proximity with each other. As soon as we notice that I'm being followed and the killer is trying to kidnap me, Rantaro, Kokichi, Gonta, and Keebo will close in and capture him before he can get away. If we play this smart, the killer won't even realize that he isn't the predator anymore. Any questions?"

Then... We had a plan. I didn't like the fact that Kaede was going to be used a live bait, but we had no other choice at this point. It was a race against the clock to save Shuichi. Like it or not, I knew that Kaede knew more about this situation than I did... Maybe she even knew more than she was letting on.

"One question!" Kokichi shouted as he lunged froward onto the desk and shot his hand up like he was in school. "Do robots have dicks?"

Thanks, Kokichi.


	3. A Favor For A Favor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait for an update. Life has been kind of busy lately, but I haven't forgot about my fanfics. I plan on updating more frequently now that I have way more time to write.

I found myself standing in front of a rather suspicious door in an alleyway. It wasn't just any door, but a back door that lead directly to the "Despair Club". This was nightclub that was home to really loud music and probably illegal activity. How did I get here? Well after Kokichi and I made our plans with Kaede and her ragtag group, Kokichi pulled me here during that same night. He said he had business to take care of, and it would be something that interest me.

"Wooooow," Kokichi groaned with apparent excitement in his voice. "I never thought I would be here again."

"But why are we here?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Kokichi looked at me with a confused look. "Do you really think Kaede and her group of idiots are really gonna be able to catch the killer?"

"Oh, that's what this is," I answered as I rubbed the back of my head. "I'd be lying if I said that I had faith in our plan. It's not nearly as full proof as I'm used to. But what other choice do we have?"

"Ahhhhhhhh, THIS."

"What exactly is "this", Kokichi?"

"Duuuuuhhhhhh," he said as he pushed me a step forward. "This is Plan B." 

"Okay, fine," I side stepped from his grasped and he fell forward. "Then why are we a the Despair Club?"

"For information," Kokichi answered as he pointed to the metallic door in front of us. "Rumor has it that Junko Enoshima herself owns this club."

"So?"

"Sooooooooo, she has information on everyone in this city, and then some."

"And you've been here before."

"Kind of."

That didn't sound reassuring.

"Kind of?"

"Yeeeaaah," Kokichi smiled at me as he put both hands behind his hand. "I've only been to this alleyway once before, with a friend. I didn't actually go in, but he did... And once he walked through that door, I never saw him again."

"So he just disappeared?"

"Oh no, not at all. I've just never seen him in person again. He posts on Facebook all the time. He actually took a trip to Paris recently and posted pictures of it, and I'm soooo jealous because I hear it's lovely this time of year." 

"Okay, I get it," I hushed Kokichi fast, before he we would go on a long story that I would be forced to listen to. "If she can give us some information, it's worth a shot." 

"Finally you listen to one of my plans," Kokichi giggled as we walked towards the door. "All we have to do is knock on the door." 

He looked as me for a couple seconds, and it took me a moment to realize that he was leaving it up to me to knock on the door and take the lead here. I sighed in response, not entirely sure what would happen next once I started down this path. I was just hoping that he was telling the truth this time and we could get some answers. Maybe that was asking for too much. I would just have to keep a level head and play this smart.

I knocked on the metal door twice, and I could hear it echo throughout the alleyway surrounding us. I didn't test my luck and knock anymore than that. There was a deafening silence for a moment after the echos drifted away. 

"Ummm, hello?"

As soon as the words came out of my mouth, the door swung open, revealing a dark hallway leading into the nightclub. It took me a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to the darkness in front of us, and I could see the outline of someone standing in the doorway. It was definitely the figure of a woman, and the first thing I noticed about her was her weird attire. She had on an almost typical maid outfit, except a spider web design decorated her skirt and top. Her hair was short and light in color, and a long bang covered half of her face. To my surprise, she looked around my age, and she was really pretty. 

I can't lie, I was expecting a burly, hairy guy to answer the door. Not an attractive maid. 

"Can I help you?"

Her voice was calm yet stern, and I found that it caused a lump in my throat. 

"Sorry," I cleared my throat, taking a second to try to compose myself. "We were told that Junko Enoshima is here."

"And what if she is?"

Her eyes darted towards myself and Kokichi, and she looked far more intimidating now. 

"I was told she has information on everyone in this city," I responded, with a newfound confidence in my stance. "We need info on the Blueberry Killer."

There was an awkward pause after my explanation. The maid's face hadn't changed at all after I brought up the Blueberry Killer, but she didn't responded with her words either. I was starting to get nervous that I already screwed this up.

"Did I, um, say somethi-"

"Right this way."

Without a second thought, she turned around and walked down the dark hallway. Kokichi and I looked at each other and blinked a few times, completely unsure of what to do. We both shrugged our shoulders in a "What's the worse that can happen?" kind of way, and started to follow the maid. 

The hallway was dark, with the the occasional dim light bulb was scattered across the ceiling. I could hear the light buzzing of loud music, which was probably coming from the nightclub section of the building above us. Wherever this maid was taking us, it was a separate section than the bright lights and loud noises from the Despair Club.

After walking in silence for a few minutes, I could see a single door at the end of the hallway, marking the end of the road for this journey. It wasn't a normal door, though. The design of the door was a little... off? There was a giant picture of what looked like a teddy bear on it. One side of the bear was white and the other side was black. A wicked smile was plastered on half of its weird face. 

"Now that's... disturbing," Kokichi whispered to me as we approached the door. 

The maid turned the doorknob on the door and slowly opened it. She gestured towards the now open room, signaling for us to enter first. Kokichi and I gulped simultaneously, knowing full well that this wasn't going to end well. We were in too deep now. There was no turning back. 

We walked into the new room, which was far more well lit and welcoming than the dingy hallway we were just in. The room itself was rather large, and a multitude of different colored lights decorated the walls. This room looked like it belonged to the nightclub just above us. But the bright lights were not was caught my attention at first.

No, it was the girl sitting on the lavish pink sofa at the center of the room. 

Her hair was long and divided into two large pigtails, and she wore a low cut school uniform. She had piercing blue eyes and blood red fake nails. She was really attractive, almost like in an artificial way. I didn't expect an owner of a nightclub and master of information in this strange city to be so fashion forward. 

Behind the sofa was another girl, but she looked far more natural in her appearance. She had short black hair and freckles sprinkled across her face that made her look endearing. Her body was so in shape, like she had been working out since she could first walk. While their body types were distinct and extremely different, this girl had a similar face to the woman on the couch. 

"You must be Junko Enoshima," I said to the girl on the sofa, finally breaking the silence between us. 

"You're Rantaro Amami," she responded immediately in an amused tone, completely taking me by surprise. "And the little guy next to you is Kokochi Oma."

"Hey!" Kokichi yelled. "I'm fun sized!" 

"You know us?"

"I know everything about everyone in this city," Junko answered as she leaned onto the arm on the sofa and took a strawberry on the plate next to her. "Information is the most important thing. You can get people to do... anything, as long as you have the right info. But you, Rantaro, you're so... interesting."

"Whelp, looks like you have a new girlfriend, Big Bro," Kokichi said as he looked at me. "But humor me for a second... What is she talking about?" 

"I... I don't know."

"Oh, you didn't tell your little buddy?" Junko asked as she took a bite from the strawberry, her gaze firmly looked onto my own eyes. 

"We're best friends!"

"We're not best friends."

"So he tells me everything!"

"Stop."

"Isn't that right, Rantaro?"

"No even remotely."

"Well, Rantaro over there is a special case," she continued as she leaned towards my direction. "I have information on everyone, even the loud boy over there, but I seem to lack anything worthwhile on you... Well, almost anything."

I didn't like her tone when she said that last sentence. I had to see what else she knew. 

"I have a feeling you know something," I smiled slightly, deciding to play her game. "What do you know about me?"

"It's hard to gather information on an amnesiac," she smiled as my body naturally tensed up. "How could you expect me to know anything about you when you don't even know yourself?" 

How did she know? I woke up one day, in a fancy room all to myself, with half of my memories simply gone. I couldn't remember how I got there, or what I had been doing before that night. The only thing I could remember was my name and various parts of my childhood. It was so strange.

I... I had kept that secret to myself. No, wait, that wasn't right. He was the reason I came to this city. I wanted to hire the Ultimate Detective, Shuichi Siahara, to help me find out who exactly I was before. I remembered being childhood friends with him, and he was happy to see me when I finally caught up with him, only I couldn't return that happiness. Memories of us spending time together into our early teenage years had slipped away from me, but apparently from what he said we were great friends with years of memories. I couldn't even remember them. 

"Whatchu talkin' about?" Kokichi never knew how to take a situation seriously. 

"The pretty boy over there suffers from amnesia," Junko laughed as she bit into the strawberry once again. "He can't remember much of what happened in the last few years of his life. It makes it really hard to gather information on you, ya know?"

"Is that true, Rantaro?"

"She's right," I confessed. "That's why I'm here to find Shuichi. He was going to help me find out about my past... About what I forgot. Maybe even WHY I forgot."

"It's so sad about what happened to Shuichi though, isn't it?" Junko leaned back against the sofa, knowing full well she had the power in this conversation. 

"Don't play dumb," I retorted, deciding to get to the point of our visit. "You know that he's been taken by the Blueberry Killer."

"Blueberry Killer?" she asked, clearly faking ignorance. "I never heard of him."

I could tell by her coy smile that she was messing with me. She wanted something out of this conversation. 

"Hey, I just thought of something," Kokichi interjected as he waved his arms aggressively towards her. "What if she's the Blueberry Killer?"

I glanced at Kokcihi, and I could tell by the look in his eyes that he himself wasn't even convinced of this. No, he was setting me up to rip that speculation apart. 

"Oh, maybe I am," she smiled as she licked her fingers. "But avocado boy over there doesn't look convinced. Why is that?"

"You work with information," I responded. "I may not know a lot about you, but I know your type. You don't get your own hands dirty. You use info to get other people to do it for you."

"Ding, ding ding! We have a winner!" Her tone suddenly changed, and it was a little jarring at first. "Since you answered correctly, I'll give you a liiiiiiiittle hint: I hate the Blueberry Killer. He's been killing off a lot of people that owe me a favor."

"Do you think he's targeting you, then?"

"No, I doubt he even knows I exist," she shot my question down quickly. "Saying that I have people that owe me favors doesn't narrow anything down. A lot of people owe me something. Bahhhh, that stuff is boring. Let's get down to business."

"Business?"

"You want to take down the Blueberry Killer and rescue the detective, right? I want to killer off the streets so he'll stop killing off all my customers. As of right now our interests align."

"Sooooo," Kokichi groaned, "are you going to help us?"

"I have some information that might interest you," Junko said as she glared into my eyes. "But..."

"But?"

"I don't give information for free, you know? I don't get anything from just giving out information to anyone that asks for it. What are you, new here?"

"Yeah, I am."

"Oh, well, this is how this is going to work," she wispered, making sure to capture my attention. "I give you something you want to know, and all you have to do is owe me a favor." 

"A favor?" I questioned as I crossed my arms. "That doesn't sound so reassuring." 

"It's just a little, tiny favor that I'll call in whenever," Junko responded as she made a small distance between her thumb and index finger, trying to emulate how small this favor would be. "That's it. I won't try to contact you again after that... Of course, that's if you decide to end our partner there. Most people don't."

"Wow," Kokichi nonchalantly scoffed. "That sounds... intimidating."

"You get some information on the killer, and I'll have a favor coming my way. It doesn't sound that bad to me."

I stood there in silence for moment, thinking about all my options. It's true that I already had a plan to capture this killer with Kaede's help, but I knew that I lacked the faith in that plan. Maybe I was just being pessimistic, or maybe just a realist. Kokichi had called this "Plan B" and he was kind of right when he said that. This was an alternative to the stake out we planned- a stake out that could take multiple days just to see any results. This would put me on the right path, probably even faster than working with Kaede. But... Did I really want to make a deal with the devil?

"Sorry," I answered, finally coming to a decision. "No deal from me. I don't like the idea of being under your thumb." 

Junko's tense eyes never wavered from mine, and she didn't say anything for a few seconds. She didn't look nearly as displeased as I thought she would. In fact, she still bore a firm and sadistic smile on her face. 

"That's fine," she laughed as she closed her eyes and leaned back into the sofa. "You'll be back. You'll realize soon enough that you need me if you want to catch Mister, or Miss, Killer."

"Come on, Kokichi," I said as I turned around to walk out the door. "We're done here."

"Wait a minute!" Kokichi shouted as he glared as Junko. "You have information on everything, right?"

"Yeah."

"I need to know..." His look was intense and angry, and I watched his hands clench at his sides. "Do robots have dicks?" 

Thanks, Kokichi.


	4. The Sting

The night had finally come to capture the Blueberry Killer. Kokichi and I sat in the front seats of the car we were stationed in. We were parked right outside the gigantic park that was located in the middle of the city. It was night by this time, which was the perfect time for a serial killer to strike. I sat in the driver's seat onfthe car, my eyes scanning what I could see inside of the park. From where I was sitting, I had the perfect line of sight to see Kaede sitting on a bench underneath a single streetlight. No one else was around her, with my guess being that people were too scared to be the next victim of the killer. It's weird how one little serial killer running around makes people want to stay indoors when the sun goes down. 

Kokichi sat in the passenger seat next to me, examining a small gun in his hands.

"Think you could kill someone with this?"

"Doubt it," I answered as I rested my chin on my hand. "Weren't you paying attention when Miu gave us those guns?"

"That's a definite maybe."

I sighed in annoyance, knowing full well that he had no idea what I was talking about.

"Listen up, virgins!" I gave it my best attempt to imitate Miu's way of speaking. "These aren't actually guns. When you press the trigger, it releases a bullet that, when it hits its target, will subdue them with a harmless yet sensual electrical shock."

"Ohhhhhhhhhhh," Kokichi groaned with fake excitement. "It's like a stun gun."

"Except yours," I turned my head to the side to look at him. "Nobody here can trust you, so instead the electrical shock goes through your gun and shocks you instead."

"That's not fair."

"How about you stop lying so much, and maybe we'll trust you with an actual weapon one day?"

"Hey, I'm the only one that can lie here," Kokichi responded, knowing full well that I would NEVER give him a weapon of any kind. I guess the Prince of Liars could smell other people's lies from a mile away.

"Can you keep your voice down?" I commanded as I pushed him back down into his seat. "After all, we are hunting down a literal serial killer by using one of our friends as bait." 

"Eh, we aren't suuuuuuuper close to her, anyway," Kokichi huffed as he folded his arms and sank into his seat. 

"Doesn't mean that we should let her get captured and die."

"Oh. My. God." Kokichi's eyes sparkled as he turned his entire body towards me. "No way."

"What?"

"I can't believe I didn't see it sooner."

"What??"  
"When were you going to tell me?"

"WHAT!?"

"You..." Kokichi cupped his hands around his mouth and leaned in to whisper into my ear. "Like Kaede."

"What?" I could feel a strange heat radiate from my cheeks, and I couldn't control it. 

"No way."

"You totally want to give her your guacamole, Avocado Boy."

"What. Does that. Even. Mean?"'

"Don't act like you don't know."

"Can you two be quiet for like five minutes?" Kaede's voice rang from the ear piece both of us were wearing. Miu had created them for us to use for this operation. "I'm out here being literal bait for a vicious serial killer, and you two are talking about guacamole."

I prayed to whatever god that was out there that she only heard the guacamole part, and nothing else from that conversation.

"Ahhhhhh, sorry," I apologized as I put my hand on the earpiece in my left ear. "We're just a little hungry, that's all."

"Nice cover," Kokichi winked at me.

"If you're hungry, Rantaro," Miu's voice came in next, "I have something that you can eat."

"That is not fair!" Keebo shouted. "If you brought in food, then you should share it with the rest of the team!"

"Gonta hungry."

"Look what you started," Kaede sighed, as I could physically see her head drop in disappointment from where I was sitting. 

"My bad," I apologized again, feeling that intense red heat on my cheeks for the second time that night.

"Wait a minute," Kaede's voice was hushed and much more quiet than it was a second ago. "I think I hear something behind me."

I shot up in my seat and leaned forward, almost hugging the steering wheel. I could only see the bench that Kaede was sitting on from my position, so seeing anything behind her was completely out of the question. This was making me nervous. I didn't like the knot that was beginning to form in my stomach.

"Do you see anything?" I asked as I nervously tapped the dashboard with my index finger. 

"No, I don't see anything yet," Kaede explained as she kept looking forward. "But I'm afraid of looking around. I don't want to scare him away by looking too suspicious." 

"Do you want us to get out of the car?" Kokichi questioned as he leaned forward against the window. 

"No, that'll just make it super obvious that this is a trap."

"Good, because I wasn't going to get out of the car anyway." Kokichi suddenly pressed the button on his side of the car door and locked the car we were in. 

"If he's here, I'm going to try to lure him deeper in the park," Kaede whispered as she sat up from the bench. "I'm going to bring him closer to Gonta and Keebo's position."

"Miu," I looked towards the camera that was positioned on the dashboard of our car. "What do you see?"

"I beautiful stud that needs a girl genius on him."

"No," I pressed my index finger and thumb against the bridge of my nose in frustration. "What do you see in the park?"

During the day, Miu was assigned with the task of secretly setting up surveillance cameras all around the park. She was positioned in a van a couple streets away, with a tad excessive amount of screens to monitor the situation. 

"I don't see anything," she answered after a brief pause, with my guess being that she was sifting through all the information that was coming her way. "Even with the night vision setting on all of the cameras, I only see Kaede."

"He may be in one of the blind spots," Kokichi interjected upon hearing just how in the dark we were. 

I was about to saying something cocky back, but then suddenly realized that it was a legitimate statement that he just made. I wasn't used to that. 

"Blind spots?" I hummed as I placed my hand on my chin in deep thought. "But how would he know where the blind spots are? He would have to know where each individual camera is in order to avoid all of them."

"Please remain calm," Keebo's soothing robotic voice rang through the earpiece. "As long as Kaede stays in line of sight of the cameras, we have nothing to worry about. Once she is in position, Gonta can move in to subdue the criminal."

"Gonta is ready to stop killer of cereal."

I was pretty sure Gonta thought he was talking about actual cereal, not a serial killer. Close, I guess. Eh, just as long as he put those big muscles to good use, I didn't really care what he meant. 

"If you don't feel safe at any point, just tell us," I said as I played with the fake gun that was next to me. "We'll run straight to your location."

"What do you mean by 'we', Rantaro?"

"You're coming, Kokichi."

"I'm making my way to camera three," Kaede whispered into her receiver. By this point she had completely vanished from my line of sight, and I thought my stomach was about to burst with how much tension was building up within my body.

"Be careful," Miu exclaimed. "We only had four cameras to cover such a large space. There's a big gap of space between cameras three and four where I won't be able to see you."

"Maybe Kokichi and I should start trailing you, then."

"There you go, bringing up my name again like I'm gonna do it."

"No," Kaede insisted, probably raising her voice a little louder than she wanted to. "I have to do this. If the killer gets suspicious at any point, he'll leave as fast as he came. Then we'll never find Shuichi."

Damn it. She was right, even if I didn't want to admit it. If we were going to find Shuichi in time, before the killer surgically removed his eyes and all that nonsense, I couldn't scare him off. 

"Ah, Rantaro," Kokichi broke my concentration as he stared at my finger tapping the dashboard. "I think if you tap the dash any harder, you'll break the radio."

"I can't see you anymore," Miu explained. "You're on your own from here until you reach the next camera."

Silence.

"Kaede?" Miu's voice echoed against throughout the earpiece, but the deafening silence was the only answer back.

"Kaede, answer or Kokichi and I are coming to look for you," I insisted as he clutched the gun-turned-taser in my hand. 

Nothing.

"Go, Rantaro!" Keebo yelled, completely abandoning calm disposition. "Something's not right. Gonta and I will inspect the area by camera four from our end."

"Come on, Kokichi," I commanded as I swung upon the car door and slammed in shut behind me before sprinting off into the park. 

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh," he groaned behind me as he stumbled out of the passenger seat. "But I hate running! Especially when it's after serial killers that want to take my eyes!"

I followed the cement path that Kaede should have taken to lure the killer into our trap. The original plan was to set up cameras along this singular path, which Kaede would follow once she acquired the attention of the suspect. Once she reached the end of the path, to camera four, Gonta would storm out of the car he was hiding in and tackle the killer while he was focused on Kaede. Looking back on it, it was too simple to work. The Blueberry Killer got away with how many murders without leaving a clue? We couldn't even see him on the cameras. It was a stupid idea to leave Kaede alone in one of the blind spots, but she insisted that it had to be done in order to save Shuichi. There wasn't enough room in the budget for a fifth camera, and we were out of time. 

No... Shuichi was out of time.

"Do you see anything, Rantaro?" Miu's voice ran in my earpiece, snapping me back into reality. I could tell by her voice that she was starting to worry about Kaede just as much as I was. 

"No, not yet," I panted as I continued running down the path, making sure to sway my gaze from right to left in order to inspect everything in front of me. "Do you see anything on the cameras? If he kidnapped Kaede, he would either have to double back or go to the exit at camera four."

"No, there's nothing. It's like he's invisible."

"That's impossible," Kokichi chimed in as he kept a few steps behind me. "Even if he was, we would still see Kaede getting strangled by absolutely nothing."

"Not helping." 

I suddenly stopped at a rather large opening in the park, far away from the surrounding trees that enclosed us in. My brain was telling me to keep going further down the path ahead of me, which should have been where Kaede was going... But my gut was telling me to do the exact opposite. I had a strange feeling that I needed to stop for a second and take a look around. There were a few other paths that branched out in different directions, but all the other street lights were off, so the incoming darkness prevented me from seeing much down those cement paths... Wait a minute... 

Why was it so dark everywhere else in the park?

That is what my gut was trying to tell me: all the other street lights besides the ones in our trap were turned off, but we didn't do that. If we had kept only the lights on stationed at each camera, then it would have made it too obvious that we were leading him into a trap. Did... Did he see this coming? Did the Blueberry Killer know about our plan and set up a trap of his own?

"You noticed it too, huh?" Kokichi stopped right next to me, and this was probably the only time I ever heard a somewhat serious inflection in his voice. It was weird. I didn't like it. I also didn't like it when he wasn't serious. Maybe I just didn't like him that much.

"All the street lights around us are off," I explained, making sure the others could hear what we had just noticed. "The only ones that are on are the ones we needed for our trap, but we didn't do that."

"Are you serious?" Keebo asked through our communications. "Did the killer see this coming?"

"The only way he could set up his own trap without setting us off would be not to mess with our own."

"See, this is why we're best friends, Rantaro," Kokichi smiled as he placed his hands behind his head in a relaxed way. "You and I are always on the same page."

"Gonta confused."

"You're not the only one, virgin," Miu gasped, typing so loud that I could hear it through my earpiece. "How did he know exactly what we were doing? Did he fuckin' watch me set up these cameras during the day?" 

That's when I saw it... There was movement happening just to the left of me, almost right outside my field of vision. It was a miracle that I even saw it, but it happened down a path that was shrouded by darkness. I could see a shape of a figure, but that was all I could see. Nothing specific. 

"Kokichi, look," I said as I pointed to what I assumed was the Blueberry Killer, just standing there, waiting for us. "That has to be him."

"He's waiting there menacingly for us," he pointed out. "It has to be a trap."

"Yeah, I noticed."

"Hey!" Kokichi cupped his hands and called out towards the figure. "Mister Blueberry Pancake! Neither of us have blue eyes, so you don't want to rip them from our eye sockets." He paused for a second before continuing. "And if you're looking to mix it up, 'cause I know variety it the spice of life, you definitely should go for his green eyes. Purple eyes would totally clash with all the red from the blood of your victims."

"Can you not?"

"Sorry, just trying to keep our eyes in our heads."

"Just come on. Even if it's a trap, we have to go. Keep your eyes peeled... Wrong choice of words when talking about a killer that takes your eyes, isn't it?" 

"Hey, I'm not the one saying something stupid this time." 

I gripped the fake pistol in my right hand, and then I sprinted after the killer. Once he saw that we were following him, I could see the figure turn around and sprint down the path. It was true, he was leading us somewhere. If this was indeed the Blueberry Killer, where the hell did he put Kaede already? She had just disappeared, and I could tell from the shape of the shadow that he was by himself and not carrying another person with him. 

I went deeper and deeper into the darkness, and I could barely see anything in front of me. The trees of the park looked so... menacing when its pitch black and you're chasing a notorious serial killer. Who knew? I doubted that Kokichi could see anything either. 

"I can't see anything!" I heard Kokichi's voice a couple steps behind me, so at least I could take solace in the fact that I wasn't alone in the park with Kokichi, and that the Blueberry Killer was keeping me company. 

I felt like we were running for an eternity, until I finally saw a single lit streetlight. Underneath that bright light was a person, but a pitch black cloak covered their entire frame. I couldn't make out single characteristic of them, as they made sure to completely turn around, so all I saw was long black cloth. My body instinctively stiffened up in response, stopping me from running any further. This was the first time that I was coming face to face with the killer that I had been hunting down. I was so close to saving Shuichi, and now Kaede. All I had to do was stop him. Right here and now.

He was expecting me to rush in, maybe even try to tackle him to the ground. That's why he was waiting there for me, standing in place. If he didn't want to be seen, he would've kept out of the light. This was all part of his trap. That meant that I had to do something he wasn't expecting. 

"I'm gonna shoot the hell out of him."

I clenched to stun gun within my hands, raising it up until it was level with the killer in front of me. This was my one chance of catching him and saving my friends. There was no way that he could've known that Miu made these in advance. Sure, he could've seen her set up the cameras, but Miu didn't distribute these guns to us until right before we all left the hideout and into our places. All I had to do now was calm down and hit my target, before he realized that I had a gun in my hand. This time the darkness was helping me, hiding what I was doing, and not the other way around. 

I released a small breath, letting all the anxiety drain from my body. I pressed my finger against the trigger.

"Rantaro, no!"

Kokichi's voice was drowned out from the sudden pain that I felt that when I finally released the trigger. A surge of something was going through my body, and I couldn't move any of my limbs. I felt heavy and my mind was cloudy, and the fall to ground that happened afterwards didn't help clear my mind. My body was sprawled out on the pavement below me. My vision blurred as I looked forward, this time the figure had disappeared, evading me once again. 

Kokichi... He must have swapped my gun with his when I wasn't looking. That's why he tried to stop me from shooting. I just tased myself. It was all starting to go black. I had one thought before I finally lost consciousness.

Thanks, Kokichi.


End file.
